Chapter 8

Night Raid (1)

As we awakened the unit members, we also had to gradually tweak the unit’s guard system.

To put it simply, the base was far too large for only a hundred soldiers to defend.

“From the barracks to the cafeteria. Let’s concentrate volunteers and manpower into the buildings around that area.”

“Aren’t we a radar unit? Is it really okay to leave the radar unattended?”

“We’re cut off from all external contact anyway. The radar info isn’t being relayed to any other unit. The enemy isn’t North Korea, so do you really think they’ll target the radar?”

We gathered supplies into the barracks and had the soldiers live in the barracks as well.

Then soldiers climbed up to the rooftops of the surrounding buildings that encircled the barracks to keep watch over the area.

If anything happened, the soldiers waiting on standby in the central barracks would move out to support each building.

The strategy was to intercept the monsters before they could approach the barracks where the soldiers were living.

If the base’s fence had been intact, it would’ve been one thing, but the monsters’ teeth and claws had already torn the fence open so badly that it was no different from an open door, so this was the only option we had. It was one of the soldiers on rooftop watch, scanning the surroundings with a rifle and binoculars, who noticed something strange.

“Ah! Sergeants, you’re here!”

“Did another monster show up?”

“Yes! It looks similar to those lizard things we’ve seen so far, but you’ll know when you see it.”

I took the binoculars from the soldier.

“Over there, if you look carefully in that direction.”

Our base was located deep in a mountain range where nothing but mountains could be seen all around, on the highest peak.

When you went up to the rooftop of the building, the surrounding mountain terrain was clearly visible, and when I looked to where the soldier was pointing, I could definitely see something.

A monster with its body covered in black scales. Up to that point, it wasn’t any different from the monsters that had been attacking the base so far, but,

“…It’s huge, isn’t it?”

The lizard-like monsters that had been constantly attacking our base, the Lizards. Those monsters had tough scales and stubborn vitality, but their size wasn’t that big. On average, they were about the same size as a slightly small human, around 160 cm.

“That one looks like it’s about 2.5 meters tall.”

“You can see other Lizards around it as well. It looks like it might be some kind of leader of theirs.”

“The monsters live in groups now?”

Until now, the Lizards that attacked the base usually came one at a time.

At most, two or three would move together. But that big, leader-looking one, along with the normal-sized Lizards following it…

At a glance, there were over twenty of them. Unlike the ones that had been attacking the base, this was a number that was clearly dangerous.

“We’ll burn through some ammo, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem, right?”

Minjae hyung spoke as if it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was true that bullets worked on the Lizards. They were the kind that only went down after taking close to twenty rounds, but with armed soldiers positioned all over the rooftops of the base,

We’d use up a lot of ammo, but we could probably wipe out about twenty of them before they even got close to the base. But my thoughts were a little different.

“When did you first spot that thing?”

“We spotted it at dawn today.”

“You kept watching it, right? How did it act?”

“Huh? Nothing much, really. It just kept circling around the base and didn’t look like it was about to attack.”

Even now, one or two Lizards would still attack the base from time to time. And since we’d established our own defensive measures, we were able to block that level of attack without much difficulty.

If anything, we were fending them off with room to spare while increasing the number of awakened. But that thing didn’t attack even after forming a group of nearly twenty.

If it had that many and still didn’t attack, and was just circling around the base, then the reason could only be,

“It’s waiting for an opportunity.”

“Sir?”

“Like Minjae hyung said, if they just charged in, we could stop them without much trouble, even if we burned through some ammo. But that thing didn’t do that.”

“That’s…”

A 2.5-meter-tall body, with sharp claws and fangs. Unless that monster was, contrary to its appearance, a peace-loving herbivore, there was only one reason.

“It knows that a normal assault won’t work. So it’s circling around our base and scouting.”

“Are monsters really that smart?”

“If you know how cunning wolves are when they hunt, you’d be surprised. These things even walk on two legs, so it wouldn’t be strange if they’re smarter than wolves.”

Put another way, it meant that we had become prey to monsters with at least the intelligence of wolves.

“What should we do? Should we attack first before they find an opening…?”

“No. We’re only at an advantage when we’re defending from inside the base. If we go out into the forest, we’ll be hunted down even more miserably.”

“Then what do we…”

I looked around, but there wasn’t a single soldier who could offer a clear answer.

Well, it wasn’t like there was an obvious solution right away.

“…For now, keep observing that thing’s movements. Tell the soldiers on rotation to be careful as well.”

Minjae hyung instructed the nearby soldiers.

For the soldiers, that really was the best they could do, but there was no way that alone would be enough.

In that case…

“Can you make an announcement in the barracks?”

“Huh?”

“Tell the awakened to come see me one by one, in the order they awakened.”

As a cook rather than a soldier, I’d have to do what I could.

* * *

Separate from the leader Lizard circling around the base, the unit members’ awakenings progressed smoothly. Since we prioritized safety, the pace wasn’t fast, but the fact that not a single person had been injured meant a lot.

The base running stably also had an effect on the soldiers’ morale.

In fact, the soldiers’ mental state had improved considerably compared to the first day.

Of course, it wasn’t only because the base was stable.

『The Head Chef’s Special Sauce – Tenderloin』

『The Beginner Cook’s Bean Sprout Salad That Brings Stability』

“Still, the base is in a place that’s hard for monsters to reach, and we have weapons. They say monsters probably appeared outside too, right? It feels safer to stay on base.”

『The Head Chef’s Special Sauce – Comfort』

『The Beginner Cook’s Salted Squid That Brings a Sense of Comfort』

“At first, I was really scared, but after dealing with monsters for a while, I’ve kind of gotten used to it. I think I feel a bit more at ease now.”

『The Head Chef’s Special Sauce – Trust』

『The Beginner Cook’s Spicy Pork Stir-Fry That Chases Away Anxiety』

“My family? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried, but my family is strong. Even the weakest in my family, me, is still alive, so I believe my family will survive somehow too.”

In any case, thanks to the soldiers’ morale being maintained, there was no risk of the base’s defense falling apart. The number of awakened also increased steadily, with ten more people awakening successfully over the course of a week, bringing the total to twenty.

One-fifth of the entire base’s personnel.

“That big one, no particular changes, right?”

“Yes. It still just seems to be circling around the base. However…”

“Yeah, the numbers have gone up again.”

As long as the base didn’t show any openings, the giant Lizard circling around the base didn’t attack. But while we were increasing the number of awakened, it seemed to be gathering up the Lizards that had been roaming around one by one. The group that had been around twenty when we first spotted it had now grown to over forty.

“So far there’s no problem, but if it goes over a hundred…”

“Even if it’s a hundred, it won’t be much of a problem. We’ve got quite a few ‘Shooter’ awakened now.”

The first five awakened in the base all had different jobs.

Except for Taejun, who passed out without being able to say his job, they were a cook, a berserker, a mage, and a shooter.

After that, various other jobs appeared as well.

The facility guys awakened as combat engineers, the MPs awakened as defenders, and so on. The soldiers who awakened like that grouped up with others of similar job types, studied their jobs, and honed their skills together.

One of the things we learned as a result:

‘Shooters are broken.’

A ‘Shooter’ awakened can incapacitate or kill a Lizard with just two bullets. Compared to warrior-type awakened who have to fight Lizards up close in dangerous combat, and mage-type jobs who have to chant spells to unleash powerful magic, it was a world of difference. It was true that bullets were a consumable resource, and once you ran out of bullets, you were basically useless.

But assuming you had bullets, a Shooter could fire off shots from a standard K2 rifle with the power of anti-materiel sniper rounds, and still land most of their shots accurately.

They were practically walking machine guns.

Out of the twenty awakened, three were Shooters. With just those three, even an attack by a hundred Lizards wouldn’t be much of a problem.

The moment the Lizards charged in from afar and entered the Shooters’ effective range, a hail of fire would pour down on them.

By the time they reached the vicinity of the barracks, there wouldn’t be even ten left alive. And in the meantime, the other soldiers wouldn’t just be standing around doing nothing either.

‘It just means bullets become that much more important.’

After realizing just how powerful the Shooters’ firepower was, it seemed like we could even go out and hunt that monster with a sufficient number of Shooters and warrior-type awakened to protect them. Since the forest provided cover, the Shooters’ firepower would be somewhat limited, but it was still powerful enough that a bit of limitation wouldn’t matter much.

“At this rate, if we grow at our own pace, we’re the ones who’ll win.”

We’d made various preparations just in case something went wrong. But it felt like the situation would end without anything like that happening.

‘By next week, the base’s regular rations will be almost gone, but we should be able to awaken about half the base personnel by then. At that point, even without the buffs from my food, the base will be able to run stably. The need for regular rations will decrease too.’

Everything was going perfectly.

Thinking that, I headed back to the cafeteria.

The cafeteria late at night, after dinner had ended and cleanup and preparations for breakfast were done, was quiet and empty.

I needed to check the remaining inventory of ingredients and organize what dishes I could make with them. It was around 10 p.m. now, so if I finished by around 11, I could go back to the barracks and sleep.

As I was pulling out my inventory notebook with that in mind,

Doo-woong!

“Huh?”

There was a humming sound of something stopping, and then the lights in the cafeteria went out.

The soft hum of the refrigerator also disappeared.

“Did the power go out?”

Come to think of it, it was almost strange that the electricity had been working fine up until now. With monsters appearing outside as well, it was odd that the power supply had stayed intact.

Still, since this was the military, there were generators prepared for wartime situations, so the facility soldiers would head out and fix it soon.

“No, wait.”

It was night…

The base, with its power cut, was plunged into darkness.

“Shit…”

If we had ‘Shooter’ awakened, we could pick off all the monsters charging in from afar. But that was only when the Shooters could fire however they wanted.

‘None of the Shooters had any trait that improved night vision.’

I threw down the pen and notebook I was holding and sprang to my feet.

I could feel cold sweat running down my back.

A base swallowed by darkness. The opportunity the monsters had been waiting for had arrived.